Expedition 31

Mission highlights

Expedition 31 formally began on 27 April 2012 with the departure of Soyuz TMA-22, which returned Expedition 30 astronauts Dan Burbank, Anton Shkaplerov and Anatoli Ivanishin to Earth. The ISS remained under the command of Kononenko, Kuipers and Pettit, who had arrived aboard Soyuz TMA-03M on 23 December 2011. The final three members—Acaba, Padalka and Revin—arrived on Soyuz TMA-04M, launched on 15 May 2012 and docking on 17 May at 4:36 UTC. SpaceX's unmanned Dragon spacecraft conducted a test rendezvous as part of NASA's Commercial Orbital Transportation Services program, becoming the first commercial spacecraft to rendezvous with the ISS.

After delays, Dragon launched on 22 May 2012 and berthed on 25 May following orbital test manoeuvres. It carried about 460 kg of cargo, including food, clothing, a laptop and 15 student experiments.

Loaded with 660 kg of downmass cargo, it undocked and returned to Earth on 31 May, landing intact in the Pacific Ocean for recovery. This allowed SpaceX to begin regular cargo flights, with the first logistics mission, CRS SpX-1, launching in October 2012. Soyuz TMA-03M departed on 1 July 2012, returning Kononenko, Kuipers and Pettit to Earth and ending the expedition.

Did You Know?

• In the 2012 The Big Bang Theory episode 'The Friendship Contraction', character Howard Wolowitz reveals he will be a member of a fictionalized version of Expedition 31.
• The fictional Expedition 31 in that episode includes characters Dimitri Rezinov and Mike Massimino playing a fictional version of himself.